Sytnyk no longer runs from past

Chris Yemma

Alex Sytnyk was about 3 years old when his mother told him, with

tears gushing down her face, to run as fast as he could.

He did, and is most likely alive today because of that.

The year was 1939 and Sytnyk, his mother and scores of other

people were jammed into a warehouse in Zhitomir, Ukraine. World War

II had just started, Adolf Hitler had begun the process of killing

millions of Jews and the Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union under

Joseph Stalin’s rule.

Sytnyk, as he recalls in his unpublished book, “Alex; A Mother’s

Faith, a Boy’s Trust,” made his way through the hordes of naked

people in the warehouse and escaped through a small hole in the side

of the building.

The outcome of the imprisoned people, Sytnyk recently said at his

residence in Corona del Mar, was most likely death at the hands of

the Soviet Army.

“I was one of the few that was spared, thanks to the strong faith

of my mother,” he said. “When she knew what was going to happen, she

gave me a big squeeze and a hug, and tearfully said, ‘I just want you

to not look back. God will take care of you and see if you can make

it out of here because you are so small.’ ”

Sytnyk doesn’t recall much from that time period, but that

incident sticks out in his mind.

Sixty-two years later, after traveling through Europe as an

orphan, immigrating over to Canada and finally making it to Southern

California -- and after suppressing the past his entire life --

Sytnyk is now realizing how lucky he is. He is becoming a more

spiritual person and accepting his roots. And he has found a channel

to do it all with.

He runs.

*

Perhaps it is the simplest way to connect with his past, when he

was running for his life, or, perhaps, it is something else. But

whatever the case, Sytnyk is reconnecting through running.

“The hardest part is to convince myself that I should go out and

run,” Sytnyk said. “But once I get started, I start feeling really

good. I usually thank the Lord for my health and that I can do this.

“There’s so many people who are in wheel chairs, but here I

started off in such a bad situation and I ended up doing what I’m

sure many people would envy.”

But he doesn’t just run, he does it competitively. Marathons,

covering 26.2 miles. From the age of 60 until now at 65, Sytnyk has

run in 15 marathons. From the San Diego Marathon in 2000, his first,

to the OC Marathon Dec. 5, he has been running competitively. All as

he becomes a more spiritual person.

*

After Sytnyk escaped from that warehouse in Ukraine, he wandered

through the neighboring area helpless until an army truck drove by,

picked him up and placed him in an orphanage. He moved from orphanage

to orphanage and home to home in Europe from 1939 until 1947. Then in

1949, when he was 10 and living in West Germany, his foster parents

at the time decided it would be best to send him to America.

As Sytnyk describes in his book, his foster parents said “the

Communists wanted all their escaped young boys back, and since my Red

Cross papers reflected my place of origin as being Ukraine, it would

only be a question of time before they would track me down and take

me back; back to that horrible place from which I escaped, where my

real mom was left to die.”

And so his foster parents shipped him toward America, except along

the way, he met a friend who convinced him to go to Canada instead.

In 1949, he arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Every time Sytnyk was adopted by a new family, he switched his

last name to that of the family. Even his first name, he said, isn’t

positively his real name. When he was 3, “Alex” was the first name he

could recall when someone asked what his name was, he said.

His last name went through five different changes throughout his

life -- Yesersky, Ott, Marcel, Gorda and finally, Sytnyk.

Sytnyk lived in Eastern Canada for a year. Then, in 1950, he moved

to Western Canada, where the Sytnyks adopted him. His foster father,

George, had traveled over from the Ukraine when he was younger, which

was one of the reasons why they brought Sytnyk in.

After residing with them for the longest portion of his life -- 15

years -- he married and moved to Southern California in 1965. He has

called it his home ever since.

He started a successful real estate business, grew wealthier and

wealthier, was closing deals left and right and staying out late at

office parties. All of his past, the history he was involved in, was

being suppressed. He was trying to hide it all, as if ashamed.

And then it all came crashing in. He was driving his Jaguar to

close a deal about 30 years ago, his book recounts, when a station

wagon ran a red light and smashed into him. He was extremely close to

dying, but he managed to pull through.

*

The accident provided a wake-up call for Sytnyk, but he still

didn’t have a channel with which to connect to his past. But when he

finally turned 60, he figured it out. A friend got him into running.

“I tried for a block or two and I’d just get winded,” Sytnyk said.

“But [friends] told me I had to stay with it.”

In the last five years, Sytnyk has competed in the San Diego, Los

Angeles, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Boston and OC marathons, to

name just the larger ones. He finished fifth in the 60-65 division at

the OC Marathon, running the course in four hours, 11 minutes.

In most of the marathons he ran in, he placed in the top five in

his age division, frequently bettering times from athletes half is

age. He continues to run, but despite running more and more, he isn’t

running from the past anymore. And as the miles go by and Sytnyk gets

older, his plans for running grow bolder.

“When I was training for the OC Marathon, there was an 84-year-old

guy training,” Sytnyk said. “I want to do that. I want to keep

running as long as I can.”